Jonathan Strahan - Eclipse 4: New Science Fiction and Fantasy SC

EDITED BY JONATHAN STRAHAN

NIGHT SHADE BOOKS

SAN FRANCISCO

Also Edited by Jonathan Strahan:

Best Short Novels (2004 through 2007)

Fantasy: The Very Best of 2005

Science Fiction: The Very Best of 2005

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volumes 15

Eclipse One: New Science Fiction and Fantasy

Eclipse Two: New Science Fiction and Fantasy

Eclipse Three: New Science Fiction and Fantasy

The Starry Rift: Tales of New Tomorrows

With Charles N. Brown

The Locus Awards: Thirty Years of the Best in Fantasy and Science Fiction

With Jeremy G. Byrne

The Years Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy: Volume 1 The Years Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy: Volume 2 Eidolon 1

With Terry Dowling

The Jack Vance Treasury The Jack Vance Reader

With Gardner Dozois

The New Space Opera The New Space Opera 2

With Karen Haber

Science Fiction: Best of 2003 Science Fiction: Best of 2004 Fantasy: Best of 2004

With Marianne S. Jablon

Wings of Fire

Eclipse Four 2011 by Jonathan Strahan

This edition of Eclipse Four 2011 by Night Shade Books

Cover art 2011 by Jeremy Geddes

Interior layout and design by Ross E. Lockhart

Introduction, story notes, and arrangement by Jonathan Strahan. 2011 Jonathan Strahan.

Slow as a Bullet, by Andy Duncan. Copyright 2011 Andy Duncan.

Tidal Forces, by Caitln R. Kiernan. Copyright 2011 Caitln R. Kiernan.

The Beancounters Cat, by Damien Broderick. Copyright 2011 Damien Broderick.

Story Kit, by Kij Johnson. Copyright 2011 Kij Johnson.

The Man in Grey, by Michael Swanwick. Copyright 2011 Michael Swanwick.

Old Habits, by Nalo Hopkinson. Copyright 2011 Nalo Hopkinson.

The Vicar of Mars, by Gwyneth Jones. Copyright 2011 Gwyneth Jones.

Fields of Gold, by Rachel Swirsky. Copyright 2011 Rachel Swirsky.

Thought Experiment, by Eileen Gunn. Copyright 2011 Eileen Gunn.

The Double of My Double Is Not My Double, by Jeffrey Ford. Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Ford.

Nine Oracles, by Emma Bull. Copyright 2011 Emma Bull.

Dying Young, by Peter M. Ball. Copyright 2011 Peter M. Ball.

The Panda Coin, by Jo Walton. Copyright 2011 Jo Walton.

Tourists, by James Patrick Kelly. Copyright 2011 James Patrick Kelly.

First Edition

ISBN: 978-1-59780-197-3

E-ISBN: 978-1-59780-311-3

Night Shade Books

Please visit us on the web at

http://www.nightshadebooks.com

For Ross E. Lockhart, whose work behind the scenes has made each book weve worked on together better, with thanks.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I doubt any book in this series has been more difficult to assemble than this one. My sincere thanks to Jason Williams, Jeremy Lassen, and Ross Lockhart at Night Shade Books for their confidence in this book and in the series; to Marty Halpern for his indefatigable, detailed copy editing on the series; to Alex, Alisa, and Tansy for their support when I felt a bit lost with this book; and to each and every writer who has been connected with the book, regardless of whether their stories appear here or not. I would especially like to thank those writers who came through under pressure when Id begun to wonder is this book would happen at all, and to give an extra special nod to Gwyneth Jones, who waited so long for this to appear, and to Jim Kelly, who persevered long after anyone else might have given up.

Finally, as always, my deepest thanks to my wife Marianne and daughters Jessica and Sophie, from whom each and every moment spent working on this book was stolen.

INTRODUCTION

JONATHAN STRAHAN

W elcome to Eclipse Four . Five years ago, early in the Australian summer of 2007, I was hard at work on the first volume of what I hoped then would prove to be an annual series of unthemed science fiction and fantasy anthologies. It was, for me, a heady and exciting time. The decision to launch the Eclipse series was an optimistic one, and it reflected a sense of optimism about science fiction and fantasy generally, and short fiction in particular, that was widely held at the time. Several other anthology seriesLou Anderss Fast Forward , George Manns The Solaris Book of Science Fiction and The Solaris Book of Fantasy , and Ellen Datlows The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy were launched around the same time and all were received well. They were followed by Mike Ashleys Clockwork Phoenix series and many, many original anthologies. That sense of optimism was, in many ways, well placed. As I wrote in the introduction to Eclipse One :

This is a good time for the short story in genre circles. Not maybe in business termswere yet to develop a twenty-first century business model that allows writers to make a living writing short storiesbut in artistic terms, its extraordinary. Whether in anthologies like this one, or in magazines or on websites, short stories are being published in staggering numbers. Thousands each year, millions of words, and in amongst this torrent of content is some extraordinary work.

That has continued to be true over the following years. Business models remained a problem. Print magazines didnt exactly flourish, but long-time campaigners like Asimovs , Analog , and F&SF continued to appear as they had for many decades, as did Interzone , Realms of Fantasy (though it did die twice), and many others. Online magazines evolved and became critical to the scene with Clarkesworld , Subterranean , Tor.com , Strange Horizons, and many, many, many more developing into important, well-paying markets that published some of our finest short fiction. Its easy to feel, in these days of the iPad and the Kindle, that a successful long-term business model is yet to emerge, but an honest observer would have to admit these are still good times for short fiction.

What does that mean for Eclipse? It was always intended to be a spiritual descendant of the classic anthology series of the 1960s and 70s like Knights Orbit , Carrs Universe , and Silverbergs New Dimensions . With stories appearing on Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Locus, Shirley Jackson, Sidewise, BSFA, Aurealis, Ditmar, and other ballots, and with volumes of the series itself winning the Aurealis Award, and being nominated for the World Fantasy and Locus awards, its hard to not feel that it is meeting that goal.

That doesnt mean Im any closer to knowing what a volume of Eclipse should be, or that Im anywhere near done. Ever since Jetse de Vries named the series Ive been taken by the idea that it was rare and unusual, a strange, dark eldritch thing where wonderful things might happen within its pages. Ive tried, as much as I can, to make sure each volume was different, a place though where reality was eclipsed for a little while with something magical and new. And yet each volume has had its own personality. Eclipse One was very much a general beast, Eclipse Two much more science fiction-oriented, and Eclipse Three was the one with the broadest outlook.

What of Eclipse Four ? In some ways it is the strangest and most eldritch volume yet. When I started work on it I intended it to be very much a sister volume to Eclipse Three , but like the wilful, living thing it is it insisted on being the book it would be, not an echo of its predecessor. During the nearly sixteen months Ive been working on Eclipse Four writers have joined and left the book, have delivered and redelivered stories, and in some cases have moved from delivering one type of story to delivering another. In the end the fourteen stories here range from tall tales to coming-of-age stories, move from the deep South to the outer reaches of our solar system, and approach everything from how we find love and happiness to how we cope with death and grief.

Many of the writers here are new to Eclipse , but some, like Jeffrey Ford, are old friends and regulars to the series. All of them have outdone themselves and Im deeply grateful to them all for letting me publish their work here. I would also like to express my gratitude here to my publishers, Night Shade, who have been wonderful to work with, and to my wife Marianne and daughters Jessica and Sophie, who have been endlessly patient. I would also like to thank you, the reader, for picking this book up and taking it home. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have, and that this is just the start of a beautiful friendship. As for me, Im working on Eclipse Five . See you next year!

Next page